Wire drawing machine

ABSTRACT

Between two successive dies of a wire drawing machine there are positioned in the path of the wire two rollers which are independently driven and each of which contacts the wire through an angle of less than 360* with the sum of the angles of contact of the rollers being 360*. Each of the rollers has a conical taper in the axial direction from the advancing to the departing portions of the wire on a roller and the rollers are positioned with their adjacent peripheral surfaces moving in opposite directions.

O United States Patent 1 1 3,651,62 Henrich 1 Mar. 28, 1972 [54] WIRE DRAWING MACHINE 2,704,597 3/1955 Rozieres ..72/289 x 2,138,201 1l/1938 Whittaker... .....72/281 X [72] Invent 6349 Hmbach Am Hm 2,127,989 8/1938 Barron ..72/2s1 x 3,342,050 9/1967 Fuchs et a1 ..72/60 [22] Filed: June 5, 1969 Prima Examiner-Charles W. Lanham 21 A LN .1 830741 I 1 pp Assistant Examiner-Michael J. Keenan Attorney-Edmund M. Jaskiewicz [30] Foreign Application Priority Data Mar. 29, 1969 Germany ..P 19 16 256.2 [57] ABSTRACT Between two successive dies of a wire drawing machine there [52] U.S. Cl ..72/28l, 72/289 are positioned in the path of the wire two u which are [51] III!- Cl. ..B2lc l/04 dependently driven and each f which contacts the wire [58] Field of Search ..72/280, 281, 289; 205/161 through an angle ofless than 6 wih the Sum of the angles d of contact of the rollers being 360. Each of the rollers has a [56] References conical taper in the axial direction from the advancing to the UNITED STATES PATENTS departing portions of the wire on a roller and the rollers are 2 261 304 "/1941 S k 72/257 X positioned with their ad acent peripheral surfaces movlng 1n par S opposite directions 3,166,185 1/1965 Nystrom ..72/281 X 1,693,224 11/1928 Darmstadt ...72/280 2 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures PATENTED MR 2 8 1972 Fig. 7

lNvEnTm WERNER HENRICH WIRE DRAWING MACHINE The present invention relates to a wire drawing machine having a plurality of dies, more particularly, to the arrangement of driven rollers for carrying the wire between successive dies.

In presently known wire drawing machines it has been a practice to position a driven roller between two successive dies with the wire being looped around the roller through an angle of 360 in order to relieve the tension on the wire between the dies. During the drawing process the moving wire occasionally develops such a strong vibratory movement that the portion of the wire arriving at the roller will become positioned on top of the portion which is departing the roller. While this overlapping of the wire is generally of no consequence which thick wires the same occurrence with thin wires will frequently result in breaking of the wire.

Any breaks in the wire occurring during the drawing process are extremely detrimental to carrying out the process. The reel or spool upon which the drawn wire is being wound will be only partially filled and it is not possible to fasten the torn off end of the wire to the other torn end. Further, the redrawing of the wire is extremely time consuming and hence significantly increases the costs of the wire drawing process.

In order to avoid such difficulties such wire drawing processes are carried out at relatively slow speeds so as to minimize the danger of breaking of the drawn wire. However, by slowing the speed of the wire drawing process to such an extent again increases the cost of the process.

It is therefore the principal object of the present invention to provide a wire drawing machine which is able to draw very thin wires at high speed without danger of breaking.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a novel and improved driven roller arrangement between successive dies of a wire drawing machine so as to minimize danger of breaking of the wire while the wire is being drawn at a high speed.

According to the present invention a wire drawing machine having a plurality of wire drawing dies is provided with at least two rollers in the path of a wire between successive dies. Each roller is independently driven and contacts the wire through an angle of less than 360. The sum of the angles of contact of the rollers with the wire between successive dies is about 360. Each of the rollers has a conical taper in the axial direction from the advancing to the departing portions of the wire on a roller and both of the rollers between the successive dies rotate in the same direction so that their adjacent peripheral surfaces move in opposite directions.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent upon reference to the accompanying description when taken in conjunction with the following drawings, which are exemplary, wherein;

FIG. I is an elevational view of a portion of a wire drawing machine incorporating the roller arrangement according to the present invention; and

FIG. 2 is a view taken in the direction of the arrows 11-" to show the positioning of the wires on the spools.

Proceeding next to the drawings wherein like reference Symbols indicate the same parts throughout the various views a specific embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail.

In FIG. I there is illustrated a portion of a wire drawing machine having a plurality of wire drawing dies with two successive dies being shown at l and 2. Independently driven rollers 3 and 4 are positioned between the successive dies in the path of the wire 5 which is being drawn. As the wire emerges from die 1 it first passes around roller 3 and is in contact with roller 3 through an angle of about 270. The wire 5 then proceeds over the second roller 4 and is in contact with roller 4 through an angle of about 90. The sum of the angles of contact of the wire 5 with rollers 3 and 4 is 360. When the angles of contact add up to 360, the total angle of contact will be sufficient to completely relieve the wire of all tension so that subsequent rollers 6 on the other side of die 2 will not exert any tension on the wire as it leaves the first die 1. Further, this arrangement of the rollers 3 and 4 eliminates any possibility of the wire 5 becoming wound upon itself or any one roller and subsequently breaking.

As may be seen in FIG. 2 rollers 3 and 4 each have a conical taper with these tapers extending in the axial direction from the advancing to the departing portions of the wire on a roller. Both rollers 3 and 4 rotate in the same direction but their adjacent peripheral surfaces move in opposite directions. Accordingly the conical tapers are in opposite directions. With this arrangement of conical surfaces the roller 4 will cause the wire 5 to climb to the larger diameter portion of the roller which is toward the right of roller 4 as seen in FIG. 2. This movement of the wire 5 toward the right on roller 4 will be transferred back to the wire on roller 3 so that in the region B the wire will be in about the middle of the roller while in region A the tension in the wire will cause the wire to climb to the left of roller 3 or to its larger diameter portion. It is thusseen that the wire on roller 3 will follow a substantially helical path so that the approaching wire 5' and the departing wire 5" never contact each other at their crossing point A.

The conical relationship between the successive rollers 3 and 4 is based upon a principle of mechanics according to which wire under tension will attempt to climb to a higher diameter on the roller. This will tend to wind the wire helically upon the roller but does not completely avoid any friction between the portion of the wire approaching the roller with the portion of the wire leaving the roller. With this arrangement of conical rollers the second roller will cause the wire to climb on the first roller to such an extent that the wire portion leaving the first roller will not under any conditions come into contact with the wire approaching the first roller.

With this roller arrangement a wire drawing machine drawing very thin wires which may be of the order of 0.00 1 5 mm. in diameter can be operated at a relatively high speed without any danger of breakage to the wires.

The use of two conical rollers which contact the wire through total angles of 360 as taught by the present invention is preferable over the use of only one roller between two successive dies which is contacted by the wire through an angle less than 360. A single roller arrangement is generally impractical because the forces acting upon the wire during the drawing process vary according to an exponential function in which the exponent depends upon the angle of contact of the wire with the roller and the coefficient of friction of the wire on the roller. In order to relieve tension from the wire the wire must engage the roller along a certain minimum angle in order to prevent the wire from slipping on the roller. If slipping occurred there would not occur any relieving of tension in the wire since it would be additionally tensioned between the two dies and the results would be unpredictable.

Thus it can be seen that the present invention has disclosed a roller arrangement between successive dies of a wire drawing machine which not only effectively relieves the wire from the tension incurred during the drawing process but prevents the wire from coming in contact with itself as it passes between rollers.

It will be understood that this invention is subject to modification in order to adapt it to different uses and conditions.

What is claimed is:

1. In a wire drawing machine for wires of extremely small diameter, the combination of a plurality of wire drawing dies, two rollers in the path of a wire between successive dies, each roller being independently driven and contacting the wire through an angle less than 360, the wire crossing over itself in its path between successive dies, the sum of the angles of contact of the rollers with the wire between successive dies is 360, said rollers each having a conical taper in the axial direction from the advancing to the departing portions of the wire on a roller, the axes of the rollers being parallel and the rollers being in the same plane and rotating in the same direction so that the adjacent peripheral surfaces move in opposite directions.

2. In a wire drawing machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein the first roller contacting the wire through an angle of about 270 and the second roller through an angle of about 90.

UNITED STATES PATENT TTTCE trrmmrr r rtrrom Patent No. 3,651,682 Dated March 1972 Werner Henrich Inventor(s) It is certified that error appears in the above-identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

On the cover sheet, [72] "Werner Henrich, 6349 Horbach, Am Horbach, Germany" should read Werner Henrich, 6349 Horbach, Am Wachtgipfel, Germany Signed and sealed this 24th day of October 1972.,

(SEAL) Attest:

EDWARD M.FLETCHER,JR.

ROBERT GOTTSCHALK Attesting Officer 7 Commissioner of Patents F ORM PO-105O (10-69) USCOMM-DC 60376-P89 w us, GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: I969 o-aee-saa, 

1. In a wire drawing machine for wires of extremely small diameter, the combination of a plurality of wire drawing dies, two rollers in the path of a wire between successive dies, each roller being independently driven and contacting the wire through an angle less than 360*, the wire crossing over itself in its path between successive dies, the sum of the angles of contact of the rollers with the wire between successive dies is 360*, said rollers each having a conical taper in the axial direction from the advancing to the departing portions of the wire on a roller, the axes of the rollers being parallel and the rollers being in the same plane and rotating in the same direction so that the adjacent peripheral surfaces move in opposite directions.
 2. In a wire drawing machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein the first roller contacting the wire through an angle of about 270* and the second roller through an angle of about 90* . 